TRASE

Project summary:

Trase combines data on commodity production and trade from many different sources with a unique form of material flow analysis to map supply chains linking consumer markets, via traders, with regions of production. Trase quantifies exposure to deforestation and other environmental impacts for consumer markets sourcing commodities from regions of production.

The team at UCLouvain have contributed to Trase since its founding, helping develop the original method, and then mapping Brazil’s beef exports and cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire (see also the SUSTAIN-Cocoa project), as well as contributing to cross-commodity assessments of the drivers of deforestation and sourcing strategies of major commodity traders.

Ongoing work includes the application of AI to improve traceability in cattle supply chains, impact evaluation of corporate sustainability commitments, and the assessment of social impacts of international trade.

This work has been funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation— 7703.01; Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative—QZA-21/0156 and Quadrature Climate Foundation—01-21-000098 and CIFF (Grant No. 2409-09836).

For more information about Trase visit https://trase.earth/.